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The Marriott gamifies the hotel experience

Moxy Universe, Play Beyond by Marriott International Asia Pacific

Asia – Moxy Hotels, an offshoot of The Marriott group, is gamifying the hospitality experience in an effort to draw in younger consumers and make hotel stays more enjoyable. Available at 12 of its hotels in the Asia-Pacific region, Moxy Hotels is introducing an augmented reality (AR) experience called Moxy Universe, Play Beyond! – which transforms the hotel into a phygital playground. The AR initiative will be available until the end of this year.

To access the experience, guests scan a QR code with their smartphones, unlocking a number of interactive challenges across the hotel. Before checking in, visitors can also personalise a digital avatar with a variety of hairstyles, outfits and accessories. The avatars are then activated via a smartphone camera, letting users take photographs that combine computer-generated overlays with the backdrop of the hotel. This campaign is likely to land well with the consumers in this region, with countries such as China and Japan leading the way in the sector’s global popularity.

As the hospitality industry bounces back from the pandemic, Moxy Hotels is aiming to create more memorable stays that can be readily captured and shared on social media. By levelling up its services to create a gamified guest experience, the hotel group is tapping into the rise of E-tourism.

Strategic opportunity

For hospitality companies that can’t afford to create a bespoke gaming app, they can include video games in their in-room entertainment packages

NYX’s DAO collective nurtures digital make-up artists

GORJS by NYX Professional Makeup in collaboration with @thisiscraves, @smeccea and @curry_tian, US

Los Angeles – As the beauty industry finds its feet in the metaverse, the make-up brand is launching a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) aimed at 3D artists. Dubbed GORJS, the DAO will serve as a launchpad for artists to expand the use of digital make-up and beauty within virtual realms.

In its launch phase, GORJS will work with three creators: Craves, Shams Meccea and Curry Tian. All three have been chosen in line with the brand’s values of diversity, inclusivity and accessibility in Web3. As the community-led collective develops, it will later become available for other aspiring users to join. By doing this, the brand is paving the way for an equitable playing field in the world of digital beauty. Yann Joffredo, global brand president at NYX Professional Makeup, says: ‘This community will help define what beauty, creativity and identity mean in this new world.’

With 3D make-up artistry growing in line with people investing in the digital versions of themselves, we’ve been tracking the innovations that are shaping the sector’s metaverse future.

Strategic opportunity

With digital artistry making waves across the creative sectors, reflect on how your brand might instil inclusive and equitable values into emerging metaverse creators

An airport renovation breaks environmental records

Berlin – A redevelopment of Tegel Airport in Berlin, which closed in 2020, shows how one of the most polluting sectors can transform into one of the most environmentally inventive. The airport is being transformed into a carbon-neutral residential neighbourhood that raises the bar for climate-positive construction.

The Schumacher Quartier will transform old terminals into commercial spaces for offices and research, and the 100-acre area closest to the runway into a residential zone with timber apartment buildings. Once completed, the apartment complexes will be the largest collection of mass timber structures in the world. Buildings and outdoor areas will also be designed to protect biodiversity and accommodate 14 rare species, such as broad-winged bats and nightingale grasshoppers.

Due for completion by 2027, the Schumacher Quartier is an example of how Equilibrium Cities can work in harmony with the concept of Interspecies Architecture to develop urban projects that are beneficial to the environment, animals and people.

Berlin Tegel Airport by Tegel Projekt, Berlin

Strategic opportunity

Gardening businesses should consider launching products that can assist consumers in rewilding their own gardens to draw in rare and endangered species

Stat: America reaches tipping point for mass adoption of EVs

Mercedes-Benz in collaboration with Heron Preston, US

The US has become the latest country to reach the tipping point for mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), with more than 5% of its new car sales powered only by electricity. This finding, part of Bloomberg‘s recent analysis into EVs, marks the nation’s crossover into mass adoption of electric cars.

So far in its analysis, 19 countries have moved beyond the 5% tipping point. If the US follows the adoption rate established by the 18 countries that came before it, a quarter of new car sales could be electric by the end of 2025. At this point, none of the countries in Latin America, Africa or Southeast Asia have passed the tipping point. If these regions reach this level of adoption, it is unclear whether global miners will be able to keep up with demand for battery metals.

With these insights in mind, there is clearly a need for greater infrastructural developments across the globe that prioritise adoption of EVs.

Strategic opportunity

There is a need to improve access to electric charging points. As well as creating more stations, brands can consider creating sharing schemes that allow more EV owners to access domestic charging points